I think Stafford could give us more than $3M in room. Last year Calvin cleared about $10M in space and I'd have to think that Matt would be able to give us between $5-$9M of relief for this season. I know we have to factor in that he has 2 years left on his deal and he has a lot of money due to him over those two years, but I think we can work something out that will be beneficial to all parties. It just kills me that Matt got 6 years and 72 million while just two years later, Cam got 4 years 22 million.

I think you're pretty close with the values you've got on Houston, Durant and Jackson for new contracts. Just throwing out some number ideas.... 3 year $10M deal for Durant, 3 year $12M for Houston and 2 years $5M for Jackson with cap hits of about $2M, $3.5M and $2M respectively for this season.

Pat Kirwan mentioned a possibility with Stafford today. Starting with the premise that Stafford is not going to agree to any more years added to his contract until after the Flacco deal is in place, this is what we can do. ( Kirwan said there are 3 years remaining on Stafford's deal.)

Stafford is due to have a cap charge of $18+ Million this year. So, without adding any years to his current deal, we can convert all but the veteran minimum, ( of this years cap charge), to a signing bonus. This will spread it out over the remaining 3 years on his contract. So his cap charge for this year would be somewhere at or near $7Million. We would add roughly $11Million to our available cap space for this year. But, the next 2 years of his contract would be monstrous. But, next year, the Flacco deal will be in place. And we can work out a long term deal that offers a much more cap friendly charge over the next 3 years. After the next 3 years the cap should be realizing the new TV revenue.

Uhh we basically do this every year with Staff. This is the foundation for WJB's Mayhew Kicking the Can Down The Road conspiracy theory.

And every GM in the NFL does it. We got screwed by the previous CBA and Mayhew has no choice but to do it. That is not his fault.

Believe me, you're preachin' to the choir.

_________________"Good teams don't worry about a whole lot of stuff. They travel, they play, they win. And it doesn't matter where they go, what the time block is, all those kinds of things. They never seem to bother teams that play well, and we want to be one of those teams." -Jim Caldwell

February 21st, 2013, 12:10 am

DJ-B

Pro Bowl Player

Joined: April 5th, 2007, 5:51 pmPosts: 2563

Re: Off-Season Moves

While im sure Staffords agent would like to bring it up, I cant see why Flaccos deal would matter at all. Hes won a Superbowl after having 1 of the best Playoff QB runs of all time (11 td - 0 int). Stafford has had 2 Healthy Seasons, and didnt look all that great this last year.

He should be getting a contract in the 6th-12th range of QBs (at best), not comparing to the SuperBowl MVP who is asking for the biggest QB contract in the NFL.

February 21st, 2013, 2:48 am

DayDreamer

3rd Round Selection

Joined: December 18th, 2008, 9:18 amPosts: 1103Location: Where I lay my head is home

Re: Off-Season Moves

Looks like Nnamdi is about get cut in Philly, he won't come cheap but given his recent performance and his age (31), he won't be too expensive either. I'd say sign him if Houston is making outrageous contract demands, some leadership in the secondary would be a good thing.

February 21st, 2013, 5:08 am

thelomasbrowns

Player of the Year - Defense

Joined: August 24th, 2010, 9:54 pmPosts: 2824

Re: Off-Season Moves

Burleson reported to have restructured. No numbers yet.

_________________"Good teams don't worry about a whole lot of stuff. They travel, they play, they win. And it doesn't matter where they go, what the time block is, all those kinds of things. They never seem to bother teams that play well, and we want to be one of those teams." -Jim Caldwell

If we restructure his deal to guaranty that he's a Lion in 2014 I'll be sick.

February 21st, 2013, 4:21 pm

WarEr4Christ

QB Coach

Joined: October 26th, 2005, 11:48 pmPosts: 3056Location: Elkhart, In.

Re: Off-Season Moves

I for one hope your sick! You can't teach character, and that man is not only a good player who produced on the field, he makes the locker room and the team better by being there. From day one he has motivated, encouraged, and led the receiving corps by example. You can't teach that, it comes from the heart, and this team needs MORE OF IT.

I don't wish to be rude Wjb, but your continuance of all things negative is what is really nauseating. Sorry buddy, but maybe you should take a break for a while? Your negativity doesn't really encourage discussion, it just promotes angst; unless of course you are one of those individuals that enjoys causing misery.

There used to be a person on here who claimed to be an NFL scout, and was filled with all things negative about the Lions too, but I believe he left a long time ago, unless of course he's a shadow poster now. We've got a few of those who left and then changed their nicks to come back.

You can have all the TY Sr.'s you want, but I want a team full of NB's who put it all on the line, and do their best to maek the team better, and the city proud just be being a quality guy. I personally don't want a bunch of primadonna malcontents, as much as I want hard working, dedicated team mates that work for the good of the team. That used to be what Detroit was all about, well at least until the never ending un-employment and welfare destroyed the work ethic.

_________________Acts 4:13, 1 Cor. 2:1-5, Rom. 12:1-2

February 21st, 2013, 6:07 pm

wjb21ndtown

Re: Off-Season Moves

WarEr4Christ wrote:

I for one hope your sick! You can't teach character, and that man is not only a good player who produced on the field, he makes the locker room and the team better by being there. From day one he has motivated, encouraged, and led the receiving corps by example. You can't teach that, it comes from the heart, and this team needs MORE OF IT.

I don't wish to be rude Wjb, but your continuance of all things negative is what is really nauseating. Sorry buddy, but maybe you should take a break for a while? Your negativity doesn't really encourage discussion, it just promotes angst; unless of course you are one of those individuals that enjoys causing misery.

There used to be a person on here who claimed to be an NFL scout, and was filled with all things negative about the Lions too, but I believe he left a long time ago, unless of course he's a shadow poster now. We've got a few of those who left and then changed their nicks to come back.

You can have all the TY Sr.'s you want, but I want a team full of NB's who put it all on the line, and do their best to maek the team better, and the city proud just be being a quality guy. I personally don't want a bunch of primadonna malcontents, as much as I want hard working, dedicated team mates that work for the good of the team. That used to be what Detroit was all about, well at least until the never ending un-employment and welfare destroyed the work ethic.

He's ineffective on the field at being a true #2. We have a true #3 in Broyles, Nate is useless on this squad. Character doesn't mean crap if you can't produce, hence the reason we just dumped KVB. KVB had all of the character in the world, but he could no longer produce, same as Nate.

The option isn't Titus Young vs Nate Burleson... There's a ton in between, like one of the two guys we should have drafted, both of which would both help this team more than Nate - Cobb and Smith, and both would come at 1/5th the price tag Nate brings.

February 21st, 2013, 6:20 pm

inheritedlionsfan

League MVP

Joined: January 13th, 2006, 4:18 amPosts: 3632Location: Maryland

Re: Off-Season Moves

Nate had reportedly offered to take a pay cut not just a simple restructure so maybe that's what happened.

It says we had about 119M committed to the cap before Nate and Raiola took pay cuts or restructured or whatever, but does that include the $8.5M from KVB and Peterman being cut?

Everything I'd read before had us about $1.1M over the projected cap of $121M, then we cut those guys and saved $8.5 and then the cap "grew" to about $122M. If my math is correct that would put us about $8.4M under the cap. If Raiola took a vet min contract that would save just north of $3M putting us $11M under. And if Nate did the same he'd have saved us $3.5M putting us at about $14.5 under the cap.

The way the article reads the $119M commitment was what we had after the cuts which would mean we had about $3M is space and then whatever Nate and Dom gave us, which I don't think is correct. Hopefully it's the first scenario.

February 21st, 2013, 8:37 pm

WarEr4Christ

QB Coach

Joined: October 26th, 2005, 11:48 pmPosts: 3056Location: Elkhart, In.

Re: Off-Season Moves

WJB: You raise good points but you're crying over something that didn't happen. We didn't draft those players, we won't have those players, and it's a dead horse to keep rallying that cry that WON'T happen. Having said that, NB is the horse that we do have, he IS productive, and has been a go to guy in this offense.

I have to agree with Dungy, that our lack of running game hurt us more than we arm chair qb's and gm's will ever know. LeShoure has the vision of a pie eyed rhastafarian , and did more dancing or running into closed lanes than he did spying the hole and hitting it with burst.

Having said that, what do you hope to accomplish by touting the same thing over and over? Is this your stress release? With all do respect, it's beginning to sound like a three year old with a tantrum because no one will listen to him. I HEAR YOU! But we (the Lions team) don't have the people you want, and until you are the GM and calling the shots of who's hired and fired, your continuous banter about shoulda, woulda, coulda is the proverbial needle on the record that's run it's course. Where's the reset button?

Address the run game, and the OL, and watch this team become a contender again. Do it not, and watch us continue to slide back into the basement as the laughing stock of the NFL.

As I said, I want HIGH character guys that will do whatever it takes for the team, in order for the team to win. Paycuts, instead of lining up wrong on purpose. Willing to play a lesser role instead of touting how good I am, and signing stuff with a hidden sharpy.

Could you PLEASE give the negativity a rest?

_________________Acts 4:13, 1 Cor. 2:1-5, Rom. 12:1-2

February 21st, 2013, 9:34 pm

thelomasbrowns

Player of the Year - Defense

Joined: August 24th, 2010, 9:54 pmPosts: 2824

Re: Off-Season Moves

inheritedlionsfan wrote:

Nate had reportedly offered to take a pay cut not just a simple restructure so maybe that's what happened.

It says we had about 119M committed to the cap before Nate and Raiola took pay cuts or restructured or whatever, but does that include the $8.5M from KVB and Peterman being cut?

Everything I'd read before had us about $1.1M over the projected cap of $121M, then we cut those guys and saved $8.5 and then the cap "grew" to about $122M. If my math is correct that would put us about $8.4M under the cap. If Raiola took a vet min contract that would save just north of $3M putting us $11M under. And if Nate did the same he'd have saved us $3.5M putting us at about $14.5 under the cap.

The way the article reads the $119M commitment was what we had after the cuts which would mean we had about $3M is space and then whatever Nate and Dom gave us, which I don't think is correct. Hopefully it's the first scenario.

Don't ask questions about the cap because WJB will give you the idiot treatment.

_________________"Good teams don't worry about a whole lot of stuff. They travel, they play, they win. And it doesn't matter where they go, what the time block is, all those kinds of things. They never seem to bother teams that play well, and we want to be one of those teams." -Jim Caldwell

February 21st, 2013, 9:38 pm

LionsAllDay

National Champion

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 876

Re: Off-Season Moves

WarEr4Christ wrote:

WJB: You raise good points but you're crying over something that didn't happen. We didn't draft those players, we won't have those players, and it's a dead horse to keep rallying that cry that WON'T happen. Having said that, NB is the horse that we do have, he IS productive, and has been a go to guy in this offense.

I have to agree with Dungy, that our lack of running game hurt us more than we arm chair qb's and gm's will ever know. LeShoure has the vision of a pie eyed rhastafarian , and did more dancing or running into closed lanes than he did spying the hole and hitting it with burst.

Having said that, what do you hope to accomplish by touting the same thing over and over? Is this your stress release? With all do respect, it's beginning to sound like a three year old with a tantrum because no one will listen to him. I HEAR YOU! But we (the Lions team) don't have the people you want, and until you are the GM and calling the shots of who's hired and fired, your continuous banter about shoulda, woulda, coulda is the proverbial needle on the record that's run it's course. Where's the reset button?

Address the run game, and the OL, and watch this team become a contender again. Do it not, and watch us continue to slide back into the basement as the laughing stock of the NFL.

As I said, I want HIGH character guys that will do whatever it takes for the team, in order for the team to win. Paycuts, instead of lining up wrong on purpose. Willing to play a lesser role instead of touting how good I am, and signing stuff with a hidden sharpy.

Could you PLEASE give the negativity a rest?

We'll say that at this point we're $13.5 million under.

Minus Cliff Avril's $10.6 mill, $24.1 millionWe'll get $5.2 million after Corey Williams' contract is up next offseason, thats $29.3 millionBackus will probably retire this offseason or next, that's another $2.5 million, to about $32 million

That alone should be enough for all of us, mainly WJB, to stop worrying. Stafford can be extended to get even more money for NOW, then we'll be talking about serious comfortability in cap room.

Unless we drastically overpay for players this offseason and/or resign Cliff Avril and his outrageous demands, cap space is nothing to worry about at this point.

REMEMBER, it's not like we'd do much even if we had more space. Mayhew is content to not overpaying unless it's for a veteran.

WJB: You raise good points but you're crying over something that didn't happen. We didn't draft those players, we won't have those players, and it's a dead horse to keep rallying that cry that WON'T happen. Having said that, NB is the horse that we do have, he IS productive, and has been a go to guy in this offense.

I have to agree with Dungy, that our lack of running game hurt us more than we arm chair qb's and gm's will ever know. LeShoure has the vision of a pie eyed rhastafarian , and did more dancing or running into closed lanes than he did spying the hole and hitting it with burst.

Having said that, what do you hope to accomplish by touting the same thing over and over? Is this your stress release? With all do respect, it's beginning to sound like a three year old with a tantrum because no one will listen to him. I HEAR YOU! But we (the Lions team) don't have the people you want, and until you are the GM and calling the shots of who's hired and fired, your continuous banter about shoulda, woulda, coulda is the proverbial needle on the record that's run it's course. Where's the reset button?

Address the run game, and the OL, and watch this team become a contender again. Do it not, and watch us continue to slide back into the basement as the laughing stock of the NFL.

As I said, I want HIGH character guys that will do whatever it takes for the team, in order for the team to win. Paycuts, instead of lining up wrong on purpose. Willing to play a lesser role instead of touting how good I am, and signing stuff with a hidden sharpy.

Could you PLEASE give the negativity a rest?

We'll say that at this point we're $13.5 million under.

Minus Cliff Avril's $10.6 mill, $24.1 millionWe'll get $5.2 million after Corey Williams' contract is up next offseason, thats $29.3 millionBackus will probably retire this offseason or next, that's another $2.5 million, to about $32 million

That alone should be enough for all of us, mainly WJB, to stop worrying. Stafford can be extended to get even more money for NOW, then we'll be talking about serious comfortability in cap room.

Unless we drastically overpay for players this offseason and/or resign Cliff Avril and his outrageous demands, cap space is nothing to worry about at this point.

REMEMBER, it's not like we'd do much even if we had more space. Mayhew is content to not overpaying unless it's for a veteran.

All players that are FAs this year are already taken off the cap, so Avril and Williams are not being factored into the estimated cap number. Backus is a possibility for some cap savings, but that's really it unless they cut more players or restructure Suh after Stafford.

February 21st, 2013, 11:04 pm

LionsAllDay

National Champion

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 876

Re: Off-Season Moves

rao wrote:

Shotty wrote:

WarEr4Christ wrote:

WJB: You raise good points but you're crying over something that didn't happen. We didn't draft those players, we won't have those players, and it's a dead horse to keep rallying that cry that WON'T happen. Having said that, NB is the horse that we do have, he IS productive, and has been a go to guy in this offense.

I have to agree with Dungy, that our lack of running game hurt us more than we arm chair qb's and gm's will ever know. LeShoure has the vision of a pie eyed rhastafarian , and did more dancing or running into closed lanes than he did spying the hole and hitting it with burst.

Having said that, what do you hope to accomplish by touting the same thing over and over? Is this your stress release? With all do respect, it's beginning to sound like a three year old with a tantrum because no one will listen to him. I HEAR YOU! But we (the Lions team) don't have the people you want, and until you are the GM and calling the shots of who's hired and fired, your continuous banter about shoulda, woulda, coulda is the proverbial needle on the record that's run it's course. Where's the reset button?

Address the run game, and the OL, and watch this team become a contender again. Do it not, and watch us continue to slide back into the basement as the laughing stock of the NFL.

As I said, I want HIGH character guys that will do whatever it takes for the team, in order for the team to win. Paycuts, instead of lining up wrong on purpose. Willing to play a lesser role instead of touting how good I am, and signing stuff with a hidden sharpy.

Could you PLEASE give the negativity a rest?

We'll say that at this point we're $13.5 million under.

Minus Cliff Avril's $10.6 mill, $24.1 millionWe'll get $5.2 million after Corey Williams' contract is up next offseason, thats $29.3 millionBackus will probably retire this offseason or next, that's another $2.5 million, to about $32 million

That alone should be enough for all of us, mainly WJB, to stop worrying. Stafford can be extended to get even more money for NOW, then we'll be talking about serious comfortability in cap room.

Unless we drastically overpay for players this offseason and/or resign Cliff Avril and his outrageous demands, cap space is nothing to worry about at this point.

REMEMBER, it's not like we'd do much even if we had more space. Mayhew is content to not overpaying unless it's for a veteran.

All players that are FAs this year are already taken off the cap, so Avril and Williams are not being factored into the estimated cap number. Backus is a possibility for some cap savings, but that's really it unless they cut more players or restructure Suh after Stafford.

Martin Mayhew says the Lions are specifically focused on re-signing nine of their 23 prospective unrestricted free agents this offseason, but wouldn't elaborate as to who those players are

Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew says the team has targeted nine of their prospective 23 free agents to be re-signed.

So, who are the nine?

Mayhew wasn't about to go that far.

"I'll put it like this, and maybe you guys can identify them, but there are about nine guys that we really are focused on of the 22 (not including Jerome Harrison) and there are a bunch of other guys," he told beat writers down at the NFL Scouting Combine Friday morning.

"There's some guys that we're very focused on, and I won't prioritize it. That's where we are."

The Detroit Lions have already been busy this offseason clearing away enough cap space to be "selectively aggressive" in free agency.

The team saved approximately $8.5 million worth of cap space with the release of Titus Young, Stephen Peterman and Kyle Vanden Bosch and added more millions in savings with the restructuring of Dominic Raiola and Nate Burleson's deals, though those financial details are unknown. It's estimated those restructures could have saved the team more than $5 million.

Even more significant savings could be on the way with the extension of quarterback Matthew Stafford's contract and his $20-plus million cap hit for 2013. Mayhew said he and another team representative met with Stafford's agent, Tom Condon, Thursday in Indianapolis.

"We did meet with Tom Condon (Thursday). Me, Tom (Lewand), Brian Xanders met," Mayhew said. "We had a preliminary conversation and I think it was productive.

"We discussed some things with Tom, he'll discuss things with Matthew and we will follow up with a second conversation. Sometimes these things move along quickly and sometimes they take a little longer. We're prepared for whatever way it goes."

Mayhew said he didn't feel any pressure to get a deal done before free agency begins March 12, though having a deal in place will allow the team more flexibility when free agency begins.

The team will be meeting with Cliff Avril's agent Brian Mackler today.

"I plan to hook up with him at some point today and keep that dialogue going," Mayhew said. "We spend a lot of time talking to the agents for our players. We've had a lot of those meetings, and we have some more to come.

"It's been a good week as far as moving forward on those things. I think there's a lot of value to the face-to-face time. It's different than calling a guy up and catching him in the office when he's talking about 50 different guys.

"There's a lot of value in sitting and talking to him about where guys fit and how we seem them, and how we value them, and what we think about them. We've been doing a lot of that this week."